John: Isn't here? What do you mean? I didn't see him go away. Mrs. Lincoln: No, he went away while you were gone to the woods with your father's lunch. This is his birthday, so I let him walk to Gentryville to get me some thread. You folks wear out your clothes so fast that it takes a lot of thread to keep you from being bundles of rags. John (_sulkily_): And must I get that wood in all alone? Mrs. Lincoln: That won't hurt you. Don't you remember the other day when you had the tooth-ache, Abe got in all the wood and wouldn't let you do a thing? Matilda (_enters at left from behind cupboard_): Hurry up, John, and bring in some wood, the fire is getting low. Don't you feel chilly, mother? Mrs. Lincoln: Yes, it is getting cold here. Run along, John, that's a good boy. Abe will get it all in tomorrow night, I'm sure. Sarah: Yes, or else when he's rich and famous maybe he'll let you live with him. Mother is so sure he's bound to be a great man. John (_rising_): O, well, Abe's all right, I don't mind. Mrs. Lincoln: Yes, you children like to laugh at the things I say about Abe, but I know any boy--or girl either, for that matter--who's so anxious to learn, can't help amounting to something some day. You just wait and see. Mr. Lincoln (_enters at right_): What's that, mother? What shall we see if we wait? Guess we'll have to wait a good while if we see anything very great around these diggings. Sarah: O, ma's just bragging about Abe again. Mr. Lincoln (_goes to_ Mrs. Lincoln _and lays hand on her shoulder_): You're good to the chap, Sallie, that's a fact. I'm glad I brought you here to be a mother to him. But sometimes I wonder if it's just the thing for you to encourage him to do so much reading, for I know you do encourage him. Matilda: I should say she does! Why, the rest of us young ones have to go around on our tip-toes and talk in whispers when Abe gets his nose in a book. Mr. Lincoln: Isn't that a little hard on the others, Sallie? Matilda (_quickly_): Oh, my! _we_ don't mind. We _like_ to have Abe read, and we think he's mighty good to tell the rest of us all about what he reads. Sarah: That he does. You just ought to hear him, pa, tell the story of Pilgrim's Progress. Matilda: O, pa wouldn't like that as well as he would Æsop's Fables; just get him to tell you some of _those_ stories some time. John: And all about Robinson Crusoe, too, pa, and the queer times he had. You'd like _that_, I know. Mr. Lincoln: Well, it may be all right, but I don't like to see a big, strapping boy like Abe spending his time over books, to say nothing of the hours he wastes running around borrowing them. Why, I'll bet he has read every book in this county. Mrs. Lincoln: So he has! He was wishing just the other day that he knew of some more books that he could borrow: he said he had "read every book that he had heard of within a circuit of fifty miles."